UNIVERSIDADE LICUNGO

FACULDADE DE EDUCACÃO

LICENCIATURA EM ENSINO DE FILOSOFIA COM HABILITAÇÃO EM ÉTICA

CHUVA ALBERTO VASCO

ENGLISH

Beira

2024
 CHUVA ALBERTO VASCO

Trabalho de English a ser apresentado na

Docente: Augusto Texeira

Beira

2024

Índice
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4

Ethics...............................................................................................................................................5

Normative Ethics.............................................................................................................................5

Descriptive Ethics............................................................................................................................7

Meta-ethics......................................................................................................................................7

Applied Ethics.................................................................................................................................8

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9

WORKS CITED............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
When the question “what is philosophy is asked, one meaningful way to respond to it is to
expose the inquirer to the various aspects, profiles, branches or schools of thought that
characterise the discipline. This is because, apart from possibilities of describing the discipline
from individualand specialised perspectives of various scholars, describing it from such profiles,
aspects or branches also provides meanings that are sufficient to the task.

As implied above, Philosophy has many branches. Some are primary and others are secondary.
Even the secondary ones also have branches that can further be delineated until one arrives at a
specific subject-matter discussed within the up-line theoretical frame. The important point to
note, however, is that defining each aspect of Philosophy implies defining the discipline, for each
aspect forms and involves vital elements that make up its general notion.

Ethics
Ethics has no univocal definition. As a term, it originates from Greek ethos or ethikos, which
translates to Latin mor or mores (as first used by the Roman: Cicero) and then to English moral
that means “habit” or “custom” “manners”, “ways of acting”, and “laws” (Mautner, 2000).

Etymologically, therefore, ethics entails a habitual or customary manner of acting. From this
original interpretation as a word, ethics gained its technical philosophical meaning as a discipline
that is concerned with morality of human conduct (Omoregbe, Ethics 4) or “…the goodness or
evil of human actions, and human institutions insofar as this can be ascertained by reason”
(Garret 2).

Ethics has to do with “how people should act; with what is right or what is wrong, or what states
of affairs are good or bad” (Soifer xii-xiii). Since the “how” of any subject or discourse is
concerned with technique(s) or method(s) of approaching the subject, ethics deals with methods
of moral living. And with that, it means it is a science. This is because science is principally
characterised by methodic ways of perceiving and doing things. It is in line with this thinking
that Omoregbe (Ethics 4) defines ethics as “a normative science of human conduct.” But to
balance the scientific view, ethics is also mainly an art. This is because it involves and requires
creativity in managing the human moral conduct that it is concerned, especially in accordance
with prevailing moral standards, human condition and situations.

As a discipline concerned with morality of human actions, ethics has four main aspects or
branches. These are normative, descriptive, meta-ethics, and applied. Let us turn to explain each
of them.

Normative Ethics

This aspect of ethics is concerned with setting of moral standards for human behaviour. As a
term, it is derived from the English “norm,” which is translated from the Latin norma that means
in English “rule,” “pattern,” “model” or “standard.” Normative ethics answers questions such as
“what ought we to do?” and “how ought we to act?” that would be accepted as right.
Accordingly, it provides a framework for prescribing good or right behavioural patterns and
condemning bad or wrong ones. This is why ethics can be defined as “the branch of philosophy
that studies the norms of human behaviour” (Omoregbe, Ethics 2) or “a systematic study of the
fundamental principles of moral law…” (Lillie 1-2). It is also why ethics is a concern with
notions such as correctness of human thought and actions, “the good, rights, justice, obligation,
responsibility” (Ekei 55). Due to its function of prescribing moral standards, normative ethics is
also referred to as prescriptive ethics.

And its framework spreads across three main areas, namely, deontology, teleology or
consequentialism and virtue ethics. As deontology, normative ethics focuses on

commending or condemning moral actions on the basis of their intrinsic values rather than their
consequences. And there are different theories expressing that, namely, Categorical imperative,
Moral absolutism and Divine command. Categorical imperative, which is identifiable with
Immanuel Kant prescribes that right actions are duties and obligations borne out of principles of
universality and reciprocity. By universality, an action is right if it is generally acceptable to
everyone – including the moral agent or actor to be good. And by reciprocity, an action is right if
its agent accepts same to be done to him or her. Moral absolutism avers that there are certain
absolute standards which moral actions can be judged, regardless of the contexts or situations
that may influence their performance. Divine command states that an action is right if God
decrees it to be so.

As teleology or consequentialism, normative ethics focuses on commending or condemning

This is because the central idea of teleology is that “the end justifies the means.” Indeed, actions
that may not be approved as right by moral absolutism may be so approved following teleology.
There are several theories of teleology, including, Egoism, Altruism, Utilitarianism, Hedonism,
Eudemonism, Situationism, Doctrine of the mean, and Asceticism. Egoism says that any action
that maximises the good for self is right. Altruism advocates acting for the benefit of others
rather than the self as the right way to live.

Utilitarianism says that right action is that which caters for the greatest benefit of the greatest
number of people. Hedonism prescribes acting for pleasure as the right action. Eudemonism is
the moral view that right action is that which produces happiness. Situationism asserts that the
rightness of an action depends on the situation that stimulated it. Doctrine of the mean prescribes
that a right action is that which does not flow from extreme (intention at) goodness. Asceticism
says that abstinence from egoistic pleasure so as to achieve spiritual goals is the right way to live.
As virtue ethics, normative ethics focuses on commending or condemning moral actions based
on character, attitude or virtue of moral agents. Its major advocates were Plato, Aristotle and
Thomas Aquinas. To Plato, for instance, a good action is that which is acted from prudence,
justice, temperance, and courage (fortitude). And Aristotle distinguished between moral and
intellectual virtues, while emphasising the import of a moral virtue like wisdom.

Descriptive Ethics

This opposes normative ethics in that it focuses on the morality of present and practical ways of
behaving among people and not how they ought to behave. It deals with people’s actual beliefs
on what is right or wrong and their application of the beliefs in differentiating morally acceptable
from morally unacceptable actions. This is why ethics can be defined as a discourse on moral
behaviour that is practically evident in society (Garret 2). At points of ethical judgments,
however, there is always an interaction between “is” and “ought,” for what ought to be an
expected or acceptable behaviour (i.e. a standard) is often applied to appropriate what is in
practice (i.e. behaviour under actual moral scrutiny). Since descriptive ethics concerns people’s
beliefs, moral guides are often customary, traditional or legal codes of conduct of the people.
And because customs and laws change from time to time and society to society, moral principles
also change. An action once accepted as right among a people may become unacceptable as such
over time.

Similarly, a behaviour accepted by one society as right may be wrong in another society. This
tendency of comparing standards of right and wrong in terms of time and society makes
descriptive ethics to also be comparative ethics.

Descriptive ethics also uses inputs from other disciplines like Anthropology, Psychology,
Sociology and History to explain morality.

Meta-ethics

Meta-ethics is a concern with origin of ethical concepts. Meta is a Greek word, which translates
to the English “beyond.” Hence, this aspect of ethics goes beyond a concern with rightness or
wrongness of human actions to analyse meanings of terms or words such as “right,” “wrong,”
“morality,” et cetera. Due to this concern of Meta-ethics, it is also referred to as Analytic ethics.
The main theories of Meta-ethics include Naturalism, Non-naturalism, Emotivism and
Prescriptivism. Naturalism and non-naturalism hold the view that moral languages are cognitive
codes of expression knowable to be either true or false. Emotivism denies this, holding that
moral languages are not cognitive but, rather, emotional expressions of approval or non-
approval. Given this, emotivists insist on reinterpretation of the nature of moral reasoning and
justification so as to account for the emotional approval or non-approval of moral utterances.
Prescriptivism states, in a rather similar way as Emotivism, that instead of being statements of
fact about the world, moral judgments are either commendations or condemnations of actions.

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics tackles specific moral challenges that people encounter in their daily lives. It
involves application of philosophic criticality to assess particular issues, actions or behaviours
that attract moral judgment in private and public life.Applied ethics has six main areas. These are
Decision ethics, Professional ethics, Clinical ethics, Business ethics, Organisational ethics, and
Social ethics. In Decision ethics, rightness or wrongness of decision-making processes is
examined. Professional ethics is concerned with good professionalism. Clinical ethics is
interested in good clinical practices. Business ethics is concerned with good business practices.
Organisational ethics assesses moral standards that regulate human relations within and among
organisations. Social ethics examines rightness or wrongness oiif social, economic, cultural and
religious dispositions of people to certain behaviours. Given these profiles, it is common to
discuss in this aspect of ethics rightness or wrongness of issues such as sexual morality, abortion,
euthanasia, pornography, war, capital punishment, masturbation, prostitution.

CONCLUSION
Deployed analytic method of philosophic discourses to expose readers to branches of
Philosophy. It posited that one meaningful way to respond to the question “what is philosophy?”
is to expose the inquirer to the various branches that characterise the discipline.

In its exposition, the chapter submitted that Philosophy has many branches, some of which are
primary and others which are secondary. Even the secondary ones were shown to also have
branches that can themselves be further delineated until one arrives at a specific subject-matter
discussed within the up-line theoretical frame. Theprimary branches of Philosophy, which are
also referred to as main branches.

WORKS CITED
Agazzi, Evandro. Right, Wrong, and Science. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. Print.

Baumgarten, Alexander. Meditationes Philosophicae de Nonnullis ad Poema Pertinentibus

Ekei, Joseph C. Justice in Communalism: A Foundation of Ethics in African Philosophy. Lagos: